SW10, HCC10: The Waitress From Beyond

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:37:46 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:

> On Aug 5, 8:26 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:

>> That, yes, but also, "Man-Torch" is a bit too close to "Human Torch" for my
>> comfort.
> 
> I'm intending for the name "Man-Torch" to reveal a bit more of Johnny
> Flamer's personality.  (I think I'll change his name to Jimmy, but
> "Flamer" probably stays..)

That helps.

>> Nah, that they're going on a witchhunt against people with flame powers.
> 
> I'll accept my waitress didn't explain why people would do that, but
> it seems pretty obvious to me.  How *does* someone fight crime with
> flame weaponry, without burning people?

"It's hard to control flame powers" doesn't naturally lead to "They're all
enemies of the state!"

Actually, this is a recurring annoyance with me.  Governments are set up so
that they're answerable to the people.  Yes, they can become immensely
corrupt, but even a corrupt government can't just oppress whoever it wants
and put random laws into effect, not without at least *some* popular
support - and both the government and the people are heterogeneous groups
of individuals.

The point of this?  Far too many stories use "governmental oppression/angry
mobs" as a cheap and easy plot device.  If you're going to use it, set it
up.

>> Neat!  More of that, please.
> 
> It's in the pipeline.  All this time that I haven't been writing
> fiction, I've been at least deciding where the fiction should go.
> Yes, we can expect a crisis fairly soon.

Awesome!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, Every-So-Often Night!